A MULTI-PROGRAM CENTER OF EXCELLENCE AT CHAMPLAIN COLLEGE

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Category Archives: Emerge

By: Audrey Waggoner ’21 The EMC has partnered with the Heritage Winooski Mill Museum for our Spring 2019 Design Challenge. The team consists of Champlain College students coming from a diverse range of majors, from Communications to Game Programming to Filmmaking. The museum is a unique space in the old Champlain Mill that overlooks the […]

By: Alexis Dunn ’19 This Summer, Julia Swift joined the Emergent Media Center (EMC) as a faculty consultant to work with a team of students on a brand new 360 degree VR film experience. She created a prototype with the student staff that was debuted on the first night of the South End Art Hop. […]

By: Alexis Dunn ’19 Silent Connections is a 360 video experience using virtual reality technology (VR) to allow the user to see what it’s like to live life in someone else’s shoes. The user takes on the role of Alex, a student, friend, child, nature enthusiast, and a deaf person. The experience was created by […]

By: Alexis Dunn ’19 Summer at the Emergent Media Center is an expansive and exciting time. New projects are created, old ones are finished up, and sometimes existing programs are reimagined and reworked to make something new. Flight, is a full body, interactive flying experience created by the sandbox team around two years ago. […]

By: Alexis Dunn ’19 For the first time ever, the MakerLab is hosting an artist in residence for the summer. Sophie Zeman- Hale is a fiber artist who attends School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is here for the summer to create pieces for the MakerLab, collaborate on projects, host workshops, and […]

Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) 2017

Local Innovation

We have some new neighbors; The Burlington Generator MakerSpace has opened up right next door to the EMC. “Generator is a home for makers, artists, and designers of all skill-levels and interests.”

Thanks to a partnership with Generator, “students from Champlain College can have access to even more tools; as well as access to a vibrant community of artists, engineers, inventors, entrepreneurs, and local businesses.”

Generator’s workstations include:

Rapid Prototyping

Electronics

Jewelry

Machine Shop

Wood Shop

Metals Shop

Computer Lab

Generator is an amazing resource for Champlain students, Makers, and Innovators alike. Best of all, it’s right across the parking lot from the Emergent Media Center.

This semester, MEM students are working in collaboration with the Vermont Teddy Bear company to create an interactive display for factory tours. The Design-A-Bear team is working to create a kiosk where consumers can digitally customize their bear before actually building it. Consumers can even take a selfie with their digital friend if they don’t feel like creating a physical bear. As of March, this project has passed the proposal stage and the Design-A-Bear team has begun the building process. Stay tuned for further updates!

Masters in Emergent Media Projects

It’s been a super busy semester and we’re not even half-way through it yet! We recently caught up with second year MFA Fellows to see what they’ve been working on.

Michael Fay, Christian Konczal, and Laura Fillbach reflect on their projects so far:

Michael Fay

Project(s): Breakaway

As a project manager fellow and certified SCRUM master, I’m working with the BREAKAWAY team to help optimize their development process as they prepare to release a mobile version of the BREAKAWAY game; a that uses soccer as a global language to educate boys and girls worldwide about Violence Against Women and Girls, gender equality, and respect.

The team is currently iterating on mini-games for the app based on feedback from Champlain QA lab. They’ve received a lot of actionable feedback that has helped improved the game. We are also reexamining the language of the game in order to make it accessible to children of all reading levels.

MFA Thesis, title TBD

Authenticity is a hot topic in the public relations and community management fields particularly for the management of video game communities. Video game communities tend to have very direct and invested relationships with the brands surrounding their games. My thesis explores the theoretical and practical tensions involved in producing authentic content and marketing a gaming brand in a way that is perceived as authentic by its audience I’m using the community surrounding my own YouTube channel to experiment with these ideas and will be presenting a collection of my work along with lessons learned at the MFA gallery show in May.

The project is under way and I’m deeply embedded in the practice portion of the project; regularly creating multiple different styles of video and social media content and exploring their value. I’m really happy with the insights I’ve gained so far.

Christian KonczalProject(s): Design-A-Bear

We are assisting a local business with improving their retail experience with an interactive AR scavenger hunt. The student team is in competition with another team from Champlain and has been perfecting their pitches and rapidly prototyping their concepts in order to win and see their designs becomes reality.

Mag Na Mell

My thesis work is centered around creating a transmedial IP that can be licensed for free by creators in order to assist them and their own projects. The thesis is comprised of three parts, a free comic that has been running for six months and functions as an introduction to the world, a mobile game that will be released for free coinciding with the thesis show, and a tabletop game releasing post graduation. Those interested can check out the world at MagNaMell.com

Laura Fillbach

Project: Design-A-Bear

Description of project: We are creating an interactive display where visitors to VT Teddy Bear can digitally create a custom bear at a kiosk outside of the tour area. They will be able to choose fur and eye colors and special outfits, among other things, and build the bear right on the screen. They will also be able to get a photo of themselves with the bear they designed on the screen. If they choose, they can actually make a physical version of their digital bear right in the store to take home with them.

How is the project going/evaluation: We are in the final stretches of preparing to present this project next week. The team is working together really well and taking ownership of their tasks. I am really proud of them.

The Champlain College Emergent Media Center’s Sandbox team has been selected to showcase their SpaceBox project for alt.ctrl.GDC 2017!!! The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the world’s largest professional game industry event with over 27,000 attendees. alt.ctrl.GDC is one of GDC’s most acclaimed interactive spaces, an on-site showcase of alternative control schemes and interactions in […]

Former Emergent Media Center employee, Jason Rauck ’13 stopped by the Emergent Media Center and took some time to chat with us about his time at the EMC. The EMC has changed a lot over the last ten years. What’s it like when you walk through here and see how it’s grown? The consistency really […]

Former Emergent Media Center employee, Grant Parker ’13 stopped by the Emergent Media Center and took some time to chat with us about his time at the EMC. How did your experience here translate into the professional world after graduation? One of the nice things that Champlain does is working in teams. You’re working in […]